January 29, 2009

Reporters Notebooks

Gary Klein, Los Angeles Times: Washington coach Steve Sarkisian and defensive coordinator Nick Holt might have committed another recruiting violation during a recent visit to Southern California. This one involved the presence of a reporter from the L.A. Times during a recruiting contact. A link to the Times' story that detailed the contact, written by Ben Bolch.

Trae Thompson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Recruiting specialist Tom Luginbill acknowledges the inability to accurately rank recruiting classes. "Let me preface by saying this: What you’re asking of me is something we feel very strongly about at Scouts Inc. and ESPN, and that is recruiting rankings ... really don’t mean that much. That’s because it’s so difficult to gauge the strength of a recruiting class until they’re about two to three years in."

Andrea Adelson, Orlando Sentinel: All the publicity surrounding the tragic death of Ereck Plancher and the collapse of Brandon Davis during separate offseason workouts has not had a negative impact on recruiting at Central Florida.

Rob Moseley, Eugene Register-Guard: The NCAA will be instituting a rule next year that could make it more difficult for teams to sign junior college recruits.

Marc Weiszer, Athens Banner-Herald: Georgia tailback Richard Samuel had surgery on his left wrist and will miss spring drills.

Brett McMurphy, Tampa Tribune: South Florida backup quarterback Grant Gregory received a sixth year of eligibility from the NCAA, but is leaving the Bulls to play for a Division I-AA team in his final season.

Pacific Business News: Officials want to move forward with a renovation of Aloha Stadium in Honolulu. It could cost as much as $185 million. Building a new stadium could cost up to a half-billion dollars.Jon Wilner, College Sports Hotline: Tyrone Willingham has just bought a house on the Peninsula. Does this mean his next job could be with the San Francisco 49ers, or is he positioning himself to eventually become Stanford's athletic director?David Bauder, Associated Press: ESPN, which recently agreed to pay $125 million for television, radio, digital, international and marketing rights to the Bowl Championship Series from 2011-2014, announced job cuts and a hiring freeze.